Conventional live wells provided in modern recreational fishing boats typically provide a battery-operated electric water pump for selectively filling the tank with water drawn from a lake (or ocean) and an overflow discharge line to maintain a maximum level of water in the tank and prevent overfilling thereof. More sophisticated live wells also provide a pump-operated aeration system for withdrawing water contained in the tank and spraying it in return into the tank to replenish any oxygen from the water consumed by fish or bait stored therein. An electric timing device is sometimes provided to periodically actuate and de-actuate the aeration system. In addition, it is normally necessary in practice to periodically operate the fill pump for the tank to discharge through the overflow line fish scales, slime secretions and waste discharges which captured fish typically expel in their normally excited state after being placed in the live well. A timing device may therefore also be provided in conjunction with the live well fill pump to automatically perform this overflow discharge periodically.
Despite the above-described provisions in the most sophisticated conventional live wells for maintaining a relatively clean body of contained water in the live well and for continuously aerating the water, experience has shown that even the most sophisticated live wells are incapable of reliably maintaining captured fish alive for more than one to three hours. The severity of this problem can be affected by numerous factors, including the particular species of fish involved, the condition and excited nature of the fish, the condition of the water utilized in the live well including for instance its oxygen content and temperature, etc., all of which make it difficult to evaluate and determine the reason or reasons for this problem.
Fish located in the live well are typically from water cooler in temperature than that experienced in a live well. Consequently, a major deficiency with conventional live wells is that once the live well is filled with fluid, the temperature of the fluid will eventually reach or exceed ambient air temperature and/or the temperature of water from which the fish has been removed. The present invention addresses this deficiency and advances the art by reducing the temperature of the fluid in the live well via refrigerant based cooling means to maintain a temperature closer to the normal habitat of the fish and reduce the likelihood of shocking the fish.
It is theorized that one of the principal causes of problems in maintaining captured fish alive is the excited nature of the fish when placed in a generally enclosed live well or similar tank. As mentioned above, in this excited condition, fish tend to lose some portion of their scales and their natural slime secretions as well as to discharge bodily wastes and even to vomit the contents of their digestive tracts. All of this foreign matter in the water in a live well poses a danger to the fish in that the foreign matter may become lodged in the fish's gills during normal breathing. Moreover, the excited nature of the fish significantly increases its metabolism causing it to utilize oxygen from the water at a significantly increased rate. Finally, it is known that fish are relatively sensitive to the temperature of the ambient body of water and, therefore, any difference in the temperature of the water in the live well from that of the surrounding ambient body of water, particularly when the live well water is elevated, may exacerbate the excited condition of the fish. As distinguished from the instant invention, conventional live wells make essentially no provision for compensating for any of these factors, other than the afore described provision of water overflow and refilling of the live well and an aeration system for replenishing oxygen to the water contained in the live well.
Occasionally ice is used as a cooling agent but commercially made ice generally contains chlorine, fluorine and other chemicals which are fatal to bait and fish and further most waters supplied for human use contain chemicals, such as chlorine, which cause the death of aquatic life. More often than not, no effort is made to precisely control temperature as well as the oxygen content of the water containing bait and fish and both of these elements require precise control to preserve bait and fish in an alive condition. As is known, the temperature of water is inversely proportional to the amount of oxygen that the water contains and this is commonly overlooked by a fisherman in carrying his bait and fish about. It is a common practice for fisherman to fill his bait and/or fish bucket from a water source such as a lake at his fishing site and in summer the surface water is relatively hot and oxygen depleted which is a thermal shock to bait and fish which are accustomed to deeper cool water having an adequate oxygen content.
In substantial contrast, the present invention provides a novel live well apparatus and method designed to operate according to the fundamental concept of cooling the water contained in a live well tank or bait tank via coordinated communication with a generally serpentined form heat exchanger unit accommodated as part of a water conditioning unit.
In particular contrast to the contemporary art, the present invention discloses and claims a novel heat exchanger unit wherein a generally serpentine water passageway has been formed within a continuous block of polyethylene. A stainless steel serpentine form of tubular conduit or other material non-toxic to aquatic life containing a pressurized refrigerant is then positioned within the passageway to allow water between the heat exchanger unit to be routed within the passageway maintaining continuous contact with the tubular conduit allowing for a maximized heat exchange within the passageway prior to the water exiting the heat exchange unit and returning to the bait or live well as taught be and claimed.